Tea & Books - What are you reading?

I’m reading the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Finished ‘Queen of Attolia’ yesterday and am halfway through ‘King of Attolia’ now. Positively love them, especially the character Eugenides. x3 I love her characterizations, and she writes excellent dialogue that can be really touching, or laugh out loud funny depending on the moment.

I need a long vacation I decide to go visit the Magical Land of Xanth for a while, I visit Xanth by Reading the Xanth Novels of Piers Anthony.
I’ve read many of the Xanth novels and at first they seem fantastical and silly sometimes even childish but they can suck you in and they are fun and exciting, I enjoy reading them. I have the entire collection now so I’m going to start at the beginning of the series and read as far as I can :)
First book is A Spell for Chameleon and In this adventure, Bink is exiled to Mundania because he has (inadvertently) broken Xanth law by not having a magical talent. He returns to Xanth with Chameleon, a woman whose intelligence and beauty vary inversely depending on the time of the month, and the evil magician Trent who was exiled 20 years earlier for attempting to usurp the throne of Xanth.
Read more here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spell_for_Chameleonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth

I just finished reading “1984” by George Orwell. Amazing book, I recommend it if you want to imagine a society where love and any other human attachment are prohibited. The film is also nicely done. By the way tea was also hard to find in the world depicted by Orwell.

I remember reading that back in highschool. The whole novel bored me to tears, but as soon as I got to that one part where there was one of those TV things in the place you least expected it, the whole book changed. And the ending? Wow. My jaw dropped. Being totally serious itt was life changing, really. Years later I still make allusions to that novel.

I hadn’t realized they made a film for it. Definitely hope they managed to catch the horror of the ending well.

Just wrapped up Black (Ted Dekker) yesterday and now waiting for my copy of White (also Ted Dekker) to come in at the library. In the meantime, I am working on the third Derrick Storm novella and I think I will start A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire. I read some of the Wicked series a few years ago and really liked it, hopefully I remember enough for this one to make sense.

Started on The Girl Who Married an Eagle by Tamar Myers. Set in the Belgian Congo circa 1960. Young Ohioan recklessly volunteers for missionary work and is totally overwhelmed upon arrival. That’s as far in as I’ve gotten, but it’s very enjoyable with low-key humor throughout. A good counterpart to No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, if you’re a fan of those.

Just finished reading “Fragile Things,” a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. Funny how little of his works I’ve read, especially considering he’s one of those writers I want to be like when I grow up. It was an enjoyable collection.

The next down on the stack is “Stardust.” This is by the same author and comes highly recommended, but I can’t seem to get through the first chapter without falling asleep. I’m not sure whether it’s the writer’s fault or my own. I do tend to pick it up late at night…

I’m halfway through the last book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series – a Memory of Light.

I can’t believe I’m actually at the last book! I started reading the series back in 1996 (in high school) and when I found out the author died in 2007 (besides being saddened by the loss), I despaired that we would never get an ending. Turns out when Jordan found out he had terminal heart disease, he outlined how the series was going to end and outlined as much as possible so someone else could finish it off. Wow. Just wow.

And it’s in my hands.

And it’s so good! I really wish I knew someone I could squee about this with!!!

According to wikipedia, the series is over 4 million words long, and if you listened to the audiobooks back to back it would take 461 hours… I’ve really invested A LOT into this series. And none of my close friends are into the series at all. It’s so frustrating!

So I guess I’ll probably keep my head down and a cup of tea nearby because I’m just devouring this book and don’t want to do anything but get to the end. And then I’ll be that much closer to re-reading it. Hahah

I like it because it’s a well-written fantasy series that is just epic. You start the first book with a bunch of regular people from a rural setting and through them you get to explore everything. The whole series builds up to the battle with the Dark One and trying to save the world (your typical fantasy stuff) but for me it’s the characters that really nail it. I like these people and I enjoyed watching them grow as we get through the series. They frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, but that just shows that I care. Wanting to know what happens to them is what has me gripping onto this book so hard.

And Jordan goes NUTS with characters – it can be a lot to keep track of in the later books, but he makes the world feel real enough that I can easily immerse myself into it. I was hooked after the first book though so that’s a pretty good indication.

If you’re interested, PM me and I can send you the first ebook. (I own physical books so I feel it’s ok to lend the digital one out…)

I haven’t heard of that series. oh gee, I am so out of the loop any more about good non-academic reading material. I wish I had more time to read fun stuff. I might have to make time for this one (^^).

@Cavocorax, thanks for the summary. I am always leery of massive series, but I devoured The Song of Ice and Fire and Legend of the Seeker series’. I tried Outlander once but put it down at 30 pages. Maybe it’s time for Wheel of Time.

I loved this series, but it was eating up my time. Some years ago when I was reading it, my husband was well ahead of me on the series and the writer was still turning out books. I didn’t like to be left hanging on an unhappy note, so I had my husband tell me which ones had the happiest endings and used them as stopping points. I haven’t picked up since “Heart of Winter,” but if the whole series is complete, maybe I’ll get the rest and finish it.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but our very own Jack (one of the co-creators of Steepster, http://steepster.com/jack) has just published his first book! I haven’t started it yet, but will soon. I’m already hearing good things, plus, he’s a stand-up guy :)